Emotional Eating

Lately I have been thinking a lot about personal blocks and my weaknesses. I understand that we have weaknesses for a reason and that we can be made strong through Christ. But somedays, golly, I just need to sit and watch Netflix because I become so overwhelmed with them.

Maybe some of you can relate, but I have been struggling with food and sugar cravings. My health hasn’t been the best over the past year and a half. I have had UTIs on and off for 9 months (more on than off) brought on by eating sugar or carbs and anything that wasn’t a veggie or fruit. 4 courses of antibiotics that didn’t make a dent, and the emotional stress of what felt like 1,000,000 TDYs. I was feeling like poop. Something needed to change.

I remember sitting on the couch coming to the realization that I was an emotional eater. Even a binge eater. I carry around a lot of emotional baggage that I am working on releasing but I had learned to cope with food. I would eat and eat but never feel mentally full or satisfied, I know my stomach would be physically full but I have been over eating for some time that my body just ignore those signals.

So after I had become painfully aware of my bad habits, I did some research on what I was doing and how I could, not fix my problem (I really believe we aren’t broken so we don’t need to be “fixed”) but make my weakness into my strength. I really had started to feel like if I didn’t work through this I wouldn’t be able to move forward on to bigger and better things in my life.

You may be on the same journey I am or just looking around my blog but I want to share with you what I have found out about emotional or binge eating.

What is emotional eating?

Emotional eating is where you eat food even when you are not hungry in a response to an emotion and not actual physical hunger.

How can you tell if you are an emotional eater?

When do you eat? Are you feeling physically hungry? If you are eating when you are not getting signals from your body like a grumbly stomach, your most likely emotional eating.

Remember how I talked about not feeling satisfied when I ate? That is a sign of emotional eating. In my experience I have continued to eat even when I am full. I even ate food I didn’t really like. I used the excuse of, “I didn’t want the food to go to waste.”

Getting craving for food based on emotions. Some of mine are chocolate when I am sad or depressed. Crunchy food when I am agitated like chips, carrots, or celery.

Grazing and snacking. I will be honest, I have been watching a show with my kids and got some snacks for them but then I would snack too and realize that it is gone even before I even noticed. This is also referred to as mindless eating. Your mind is focused on something and you are munching away.

So what can I do to change my habits around emotional eating?

Be Aware of your Habits

Be aware of your habits and don’t be embarrassed or feel shame around your eating. Be proud of yourself for wanting to make a change! A great way to see what your habits are is to keep a food journal. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate chart, just jot down what you ate, when you ate, and where you were that way you can see if locations are part of your triggers. If you really want to get into it, make note of how physically hungry you are on a scale of 1-10. Track yourself for 3 days that way you can get an idea of what your habits are on different days.

Redirect

I can speak from experience that it helps a ton when you redirect your mind to something that is noncaloric related that lifts your mood. Things that you love to do and gives you a pick me up or relaxes you. You will need to create a list of things that you personally will give you comfort. Here are a few examples that I love to do.

Give yourself a mini foot massage. Grab your favorite oils and get rubbing. Focus on the tight places of your feet. I enjoy lavender for a more relaxing effect or peppermint, or lemon for an energizing smell.

Take a moment to breathe slowly. Often times we eat to help ourselves zone out and kind of numb things. When we slow our breathing down it can trick our minds into thinking we are going to sleep which calms the mind down. Do this for about 10 breaths. This is great for those with anxiety too.

Journal what you are feeling. I pin up my emotions and journaling helps release stress that I have been storing up. You can even write on a random paper whatever pops into your mind, letting it flow through your hand and then shred the paper after it is full.

Enjoy a minute to yourself and take a moment to think and figure out what emotion you are experiencing and why? Were you going to eat because you were bored? Something upsetting just happen? Identifying with what emotions you are experiencing helps you discover what your triggers are and how you can change your habits to set yourself up for success.

Keep Trying!

When I first started trying to get my eating habits in order, I was unfair to myself expecting things to change over night. Change is a process that, at least for me, has to be relearned. I was doing well a few months ago then things got busy and I just lost track and fell off the bandwagon so writing this post is helping me get back on track. Taking time to learn to self-soothing techniques when times aren’t rough will help you be able to act when things get start to get rough. Self care isn’t only for when you are feeling down!

A thought that I just come to me was that often times when you are feeling like you need to emotionally eat you might be hungering in another way. Have you been spiritually fed lately? Are you feeding the need our bodies have to be physically active? Are you needing more academic, mental stimulation?

I really do feel like there has to be a balance in our lives.

Emotional/Mental, Spiritually, and Mentally. Are you taking care of your self in all of these areas? I want to leave you with this last thought.

“But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

“But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong.” (D&C 9:7–9.)

After you have read this, I want to encourage you to speak with Heavenly Father through prayer and ask Him to help you understand what you can do to help transform your weakness into a strength. I know that when we go to him for inspiration, it will come if we are willing to hear and follow the council we receive through the Holy Spirit. Keep your chin up and pressing forward with faith!

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